John Hundley

A sales representative contract which was terminable only by the mutual agreement of the parties was a contract of indefinite duration and hence terminable at will, a panel of the Appellate Court in Chicago has ruled.

Illinois home buyers do not waive their rights under the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act (765 ILCS 77) by closing the transaction despite omissions on sellers’ disclosure form, a panel in the Appellate Court’s Fourth District has held.

When requests to admit are served by mail, the four-day effectiveness provision of Illinois Supreme Court Rule 12(c) must be taken into account in determining when responses must be served to avoid binding admission of those requests, a panel in the Appellate Court’s First District has held.

The Employee Classification Act (820 ILCS 185) has been amended to address the defects found
in Bartlow v. Shannon, 399 Ill.App.3d 560 (5th Dist. 2010), and, as amended, has been sustained by
the Illinois Supreme Court. Bartlow v. Costigan, 2014 IL 115152.

Neither share ownership nor officer status is required for Illinois courts to apply the doctrine of piercing
the corporate veil, a panel in the Appellate Court’s First District held this month.

Predatory lending may give rise to a defense preventing foreclosure on a mortgage loan, the Supreme
Court of Arkansas held recently.

A bankruptcy court may not order that a debtor’s exempt assets be used to pay administrative expenses incurred as a result of the debtor’s misconduct, the U.S. Supreme Court has held.

An Appellate Court panel in Chicago has issued a valuable primer on when liquidated damages clauses will be deemed permissible and impermissible under Illinois law.

A trial court need not conduct an in camera review of the subject communications in order to hold that they are subject to the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege, the Illinois Supreme Court has reiterated.